The present disclosure relates generally to the field of drilling and processing of wells, and, more particularly, to a system and method for filling casing during a casing process, a drilling process, or another type of well processing operation.
In conventional oil and gas operations, a well is typically drilled to a desired depth with a drill string, which includes drill pipe and a drilling bottom hole assembly. Once the desired depth is reached, the drill string is removed from the hole and casing is run into the vacant hole. Casing may be defined as pipe or tubular that is placed in a well to prevent the well from caving in, to contain fluids, and to assist with efficient extraction of product. Tubular may be defined as including drill pipe, casing, or any other type of tubular utilized in drilling or well processing operations.
During drilling and casing running operations, a string of tubular (e.g., drill pipe or casing) is typically held by slips mounted to the rig floor while a new length of tubular is connected. Specifically in casing operations, a new length of tubular is positioned above the floor mounted tubular string by a special elevator while connections are made up at the rig floor level. Occasionally, as the string of tubular is assembled at the surface, the string of tubular may be filled with a filling fluid (e.g., mud or water) to provide balance to the string of tubular, to flush drilling material out of the wellbore, and so forth. Alternatively, the string of tubular may be filled after the string of tubular is “floated” or landed in the hole. Unfortunately, the filling process can be lengthy, thereby increasing the costs associated with the filling process. However, increasing the speed of filling the string of tubular with the filling fluid can undesirably lead to aeration of the filling fluid. Accordingly, it is now recognized that there exists a need for a system for increasing the speed of the filling process, while reducing aeration in the filling fluid during the filling process.